keep moving forward

Tripping

Posted on by Betsy

Today’s lesson will focus on tripping. And more importantly, how not to trip. I am an expert at both tripping and falling, so read this carefully.

Hebrews 12 (Common English Bible)

12 So then, with endurance, let’s also run the race that is laid out in front of us, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let’s throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up, 2 and fix our eyes on Jesus, faith’s pioneer and perfecter. 

I don’t even know how many times I have fallen while running and it all has to do with what I where I was looking. The first time happened when Kenn and I were running and a lady with an adorable little Corgi dog came toward us. I slipped behind Kenn so they could pass us, but of course instead of looking where I was going, I was looking at the dog and BAM, my toe caught on a piece of the concrete that was raised up just one inch and I fell and broke my arm. Just recently I did the same thing looking for an alligator in a pond I was passing on a run in Florida. My toe caught a raised up edge of the concrete slab and I took a header. But there may be a case made for looking at the alligator in this instance, however.

Have you ever gotten tripped up because you were looking the wrong way? We can all relate to this hard lesson learned on keeping your eyes forward and on the path God has set before you! 

Getting tripped up by sin often starts subtly. A mild flirtation becomes a destructive relationship and a marriage ends. An envious spirit becomes slanderous gossip and reputations are damaged. A few missed Sundays turn into months and years away from a community of faith. We look up and suddenly realize we are so far from God’s path we can’t even see it anymore. How can we prevent that from happening?

The obvious question is, where are you looking right now? What are you looking at right now? Let us not forget that Genesis 1 tells us that Eve SAW the forbidden fruit and then ate.

Genesis 3:6 (Common English Bible)

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food & pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some & ate it.

It all begins with a look.

Are you focused on the course of faith that has been laid out before you or have your eyes strayed away to other distractions? Lord knows we live in a world of distraction. Social media, thousands of streaming channels that offer escape from the real world, political news that is endless in our 24-hour news cycle, attention diverted by wealth and greed and trying to get ahead of your neighbors, obsessing over the success of our children and having to post every minute of their lives … the list goes on and on. Many of us truthfully spend a good portion of each day looking at our phones.

But where should you be looking? Scripture instructs us to just keep looking at Jesus.

When we look at Jesus, we see the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

When we look at Jesus, we see a race completed with determination, endurance, and grace.

When we look at Jesus, we see his power to continue moving forward and away from old habits and baggage.

When we look at Jesus, we see our future.

Keep moving forward! Keep your eyes on Jesus.

Not Today, Satan!

Is God Here?

Posted on by Betsy

Can you think of a time in your life when things were so chaotic that you wondered “Is God here?“ A death, divorce, terminal diagnosis, a national event like 9/11, or anything currently happening in America might cause you to ask such a thing. Anytime we sustain a shock to our system we are tempted to question God’s presence and activity.

Such was the case with the struggling Israelites as they made their way across the desert. Tired, hungry, thirsty, and exhausted, they quickly forgot how God had just delivered them from certain death in Egypt. They voice their fear that they might be looking at certain death in the wilderness:

Exodus 17 (The Message)

 1-2 Directed by God, the whole company of Israel moved on by stages from the Wilderness of Sin. They set camp at Rephidim. And there wasn’t a drop of water for the people to drink. The people took Moses to task: “Give us water to drink.” But Moses said, “Why pester me? Why are you testing God?”

3 But the people were thirsty for water there. They complained to Moses, “Why did you take us from Egypt and drag us out here with our children and animals to die of thirst?”

When they looked at their immediate circumstances, it indeed seemed as though God was absent. Their thirst and exhaustion were the only things they could see. Any hope for the future based on the deliverance in their past was wiped from their minds. Desperation set in.

Have you ever been in that kind of wilderness where all you could see was pain and despair and you forgot how God had loved you through your wilderness wanderings in times past? It is easy to forget.

4 Moses cried out in prayer to God, “What can I do with these people? Any minute now they’ll kill me!”

5-6 God said to Moses, “Go on out ahead of the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel. Take the staff you used to strike the Nile. And go. I’m going to be present before you there on the rock at Horeb. You are to strike the rock. Water will gush out of it and the people will drink.”

You see, the people hadn’t arrived at their final destination yet. They needed to keep moving forward. They needed to be obedient to God’s call to become his people and follow his way. They needed to have a smidge more faith. God was trying to lead them out of their thirst and into a land flowing with milk and honey…they just needed to keep moving forward.

6-7 Moses did what he said, with the elders of Israel right there watching. He named the place Massah (Testing-Place) and Meribah (Quarreling) because of the quarreling of the Israelites and because of their testing of God when they said, “Is God here with us, or not?”

Where is God telling you right now to just keep moving forward? What circumstance has you so momentarily paralyzed that you have forgotten his goodness to you in the past?

God goes before you. If you look up with the eyes of faith, you are sure to spot him there on the rock where the waters of peace, hope, justice, and consolation await. Is God here with you? You betcha.

And the People Will Drink by Michelle Robertson